O'Brien Wants Smith On The Field

ACC Athletics

08/31/2011

N.C. State head coach Tom O'Brien held his weekly teleconference today, and he confirmed that redshirt sophomore Rashard Smith had been moved from cornerback to wide receiver.

Opening Statement:
We're excited about
getting the season underway. We're obviously
tired of practicing against each other, look forward
to the challenge that Liberty brings. They are a
pretty explosive offensive team, a lot of experience
returning at their skills position.

They've been
nationally ranked last season. Passing efficiency,
top 10 total offense, scoring offense, first down
offense, passing offense. Led by a kid that's really
a good athlete. Kind of reminds us a lot of the
Godfrey kid that we played against last year at
Central Florida. Mike Brown is the quarterback.
All-American receiver. All-American kicker.

Our
defense is going to have to really be ready to take
control of this one and contain Mike Brown.

Now that Mike Glennon, it's his turn
now, what are your expectations of him? His
teammates are saying that guy really appears
to be ready. Is that your feeling also?
Well, I think he's
shown that through preseason camp. I think the
thing that any quarterback has to do is they have to operate within the framework of the offense.
They have to get us headed the right direction.
They have to distribute the ball on time to the right
receivers in the right spot when we ask that of
them in the passing game, then provide leadership
in the huddle. I think he will be capable of doing all
those things.

I think certainly this is his first game as a
starter. His upside is tremendous. We expect him
to get better each and every week as we go along
for the next couple years here.
I think a lot of people are excited about
watching him play on Saturday.

What are his best physical assets
just from the standpoint of what he can do?
Well, I think he has a
great arm. I mean, he has the capability to make
any throw that has to be made on the football field.

I think he has a very good feel of the pocket. He's
able to avoid the rush, buy himself some time
when he has to. Any quarterback's best when he
can go back and put his back foot down and
deliver the ball.

He's got a little pocket presence about
him. He's got great confidence in his ability. I
think that carries over to his teammates.

Coach, what is Rashard Smith's role
on your team?
He's playing wide
receiver.

How do you see him fitting in there?
Well, when you break
it down, we're really happy with what we've seen
out of Amerson and Wilson on defense. If he's not
going to be in the game at corner, we play
generally just two corners as the game goes along.
We played six wide receivers.

Going through preseason camp, knowing
he was a two-time Player of the Year in the state of
Georgia with the ball in his hands, it was a natural
for us to ask him to come over and take a look on
offense.

I think he's still learning. But he's shown
the ability that he does a lot of things natural at that
position. We play six wide receivers. Gets him an
opportunity and us an opportunity to get another
athlete on the field. It seemed like a logical move
to make to get him in the lineup and get one of our better
players on the field.

Were you surprised at all that
George Bryan didn't go pro last year? Do you
think his growth, especially the last couple
years, overcoming a couple of incidents,
played a role in him coming back to school and
continuing that process in his life?
He never mentioned to
me last year that he was thinking about leaving
school. I had no inclination if that was there or not.

To my knowledge he was always coming back.

I think all kids go through a maturation
process. Some are more publicized than others.
Certainly the incident I think you're referring to, he
was found not to be part of anything to do with that
incident himself. I mean, it was guilt by association
or being in the room, one way or another.
Certainly in today's day and age, people rush to
make a lot of decisions without knowing the facts
of the situation.

Certainly his teammates elected him
captain this year. I think it shows their confidence
in him, shows the leadership that hopefully he will
be able to bring to the offensive side of the football
and continues to be an integral part of our pass
offense.

He was certainly good enough to
have gone. How good is he and is there a
player that you've maybe coached before that
you compare him to?
Probably the best one
that ended up playing in the NFL for us was a kid
named Sean Ryan. He's a little bit like him.
Probably a little more accomplished in the passing
game. Sean was a little tougher at the line of
scrimmage blocking.

That's something we're working with
George on all the time, and it's something that he
needs to learn to do better. It's not that he's not
good at it. It's certainly one of the things we want
to work with him on, at the point of attack being a
little bit stronger and more physical.

We haven't seen Liberty play a
whole lot of ACC teams. Were you involved at
all in the scheduling of this game?
No. This was done
prior to my coming.

Do you know Coach Rocco at all?
Yeah, I know him
through my time when he played, I was coaching
at Virginia, coached against him when he was a
player. We've crossed paths a couple of times in
coaching circles. He's been on staffs that I've
coached against.

He's really done a nice job. They won four
straight conference titles down there. This is I
guess the next step. Reading about them, their
whole focus is to get to the playoffs this year.

They
certainly feel they're capable of doing that. They
have good skilled kids and a good scheme.

Knowing him they're going to be sound on
defense because that's his background. It's a 3-4
situation. It's something that we spent a little extra
time preparing for in camp.